Kate Rusby At Christmas

Brighton Dome Concert Hall, Church Street, Friday, December 11

CHRISTMAS is supposed to be a time of joy and thanksgiving, both to mark the birth of the Messiah and the coming of the New Year.

But it would appear in South Yorkshire the people were felt to be having too much of a good time singing their own upbeat Christmas carols – which were banished from the Victorian church to live on in the county’s pubs instead.

Over the course of three albums Kate Rusby has been collecting some of these seasonal favourites – with the latest The Frost Is All Over released last month.

“There are so many of the South Yorkshire carols still to go at it’ll keep me busy for years to come,” she says. “The South Yorkshire carol tradition has been a huge part of my life, it’s in my blood.”

Rusby grew up listening to the carols, which are sung in certain South Yorkshire pubs from the Sunday after Armistice Day until the New Year. Different villages have their own carols, and traditions - from how they are sung to the arrangements they perform - although the core repertoire is often the same.

“My favourite is The Royal in a little village called Dungworth,” she says. “I was taken there as a child, and even though we were in a different room playing and drinking pop and eating crisps, we were all the while soaking up the songs. Thankfully the tradition is showing no signs of dwindling. You only have to go to one of the sings for proof of this, it’s an incredible experience as the carols are sung with such passion and gusto.

“Some have words you may recognise but a different tune so there are many different versions of the same carol. There are about 30 different versions of While Shepherds Watched with each tune having a different name, usually named after a road or place.”

One of those various versions, Mount Lyngham, features on The Frost Is All Over alongside a version of I Saw Three Ships entitled Sunny Bank, Hark The Herald Angels Sing as Little Bilberry and a Yorkshire take on We Wish You A Merry Christmas as a gentle strum rather than the primary school chant it has become.

The album also sees Rusby investigate a pair of Cornish carols, and give her own take on the classic Winter Wonderland.

Rusby’s live show is soundtracked by the Brass Boys, of whom Rusby says: “even when they are just tuning up they sound like instant Christmas”.

“I love taking the carols out there and singing them all around the country,” she says. “One of the amazing things is that now when we go back to a town that we have played at Christmas before the audience sing their hearts out as they have remembered the songs.

“It always makes me quite emotional to hear them all singing these South Yorkshire carols that we have taught them.

“On a ‘normal’ tour I will be conscious of having the set list quite different to the last time we played a place. On the Christmas tour I like to make sure we have a lot in the set that the audience have heard as I know they want to sing along with them.

“We go to a lot of effort to make it look and feel Christmassy too. We will have giant crocheted snowflakes on this tour, and a lot of thought is put into the lighting and sound to make sure people come away feeling like Christmas has begun.”

For Rusby herself her Christmas is time for relaxation. Her immediate family all live in the same village, and move from house to house for their Christmas dinner.

“One of the best times to go for a walk with my lovely little dog, Doris is on Christmas Day,” she says. “It always seems to be the calmest of days and so quiet. Not many people are out in the fields on Christmas Day, but anyone who is are in such a great happy, smiley mood that it makes the world such a bright, colourful place.

“This is where the [Rusby-penned] title track from the new Christmas album stems from.”

And as for the future once the festivities are over Rusby is planning to work on her next album, with recording dates in March.

And she will be running the third edition of her own festival, Underneath The Stars, from July 22 to 24 in Cannon Hall Farm near Barnsley.

"We have plans to do a lot of experimenting with it," she says of the next album.

"We will be releasing the new album next autumn, then before we know it, it will be Christmas again. And so it goes."

Starts 8pm, tickets from £23. Call 01273 709709.